A Bridgestone Tires commercial from almost 2 years ago (January 2009, I believe) has suddenly been all over the TV again. For once this doesn’t annoy me, because it’s entertaining as hell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HblFjj_HM84
While it’s only 30 seconds, and from a scientific standpoint doesn’t make a lick of sense… it’s still one of the best bits of science fiction I’ve seen in a while. Why? Because instead of showing space exploration as some horrible disaster-filled terror, or boring-as-hell drudgery, it shows astronauts enjoying their job. I can’t remember the last time I saw space exploration portrayed in such a “joyous” light.
That is something that I would think NASA would want to promote. While NASA does not of course produce TV shows or movies, you’d think that someone there would be able to have some sort of influence on Hollywood. And if so… influence them to create something that shows space exploration – *manned* space exploration, not exploration-by-robot-proxy – as something that your average person would *want* to be involved with. Sure, “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” showed spaceflight as vitally important, but also showed it as somethign nobody in their right mind would want to be a part of. Similarly, most series/movies that feature NASA and/or astronauts portray space as, in the words of Dr. McCoy, “Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.”
I’d pay real money for a series that showed mankind exploring the solar system, using practical technology (no warp drives, gravity fields, etc.), where the explorers aren’t the pawns of some horrible conspiracy or a pack of loons with Space Madness, but instead regular people who take joy in their work and are awed by what they find. Hell, I could even write such a thing, but I know I couldn’t do it well and it wouldn’t be taken seriously. But maybe someone at NASA could knock some heads, I dunno.
7 Responses to “An oldie but a goodie”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I have been dreaming by the lat 25 years of a loosely connected chapter Tv series–a la ‘Twilight Zone’ or ‘Police Story’–based on the short fiction of Bova, Clarke, Heinlein and the ‘Rude Astronauts’ of Allen Steele (‘blue-collar’ space workers, vo ‘Right Stuff’ heroes nor Ph.D . bullshiters==but w/o the pinko politics, please).
Even I had some emails with Mile Cassutt 20 years ago about this.
I called it ‘Tales of Nine Planets’ (but now we have 8 only…).
We have the SFX technology, we can make it…!
> I’d pay real money for a series that showed mankind exploring the solar system, using practical technology (no warp drives, gravity fields, etc.), where the explorers aren’t the pawns of some horrible conspiracy or a pack of loons with Space Madness, but instead regular people who take joy in their work and are awed by what they find.
Don’t know if you’ve ever seen this…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Odyssey:_Voyage_To_The_Planets
> Space_Odyssey:_Voyage_To_The_Planets
Yeah, I saw that, and was underwhelmed. On the technical side, a single-spacecraft tour of the *entire* solar system is profoundly silly. On the “entertainment” side, it had the same problem so much of British TV has: an interesting premise (if silly) with some real potential, turned really, really boring.
Scott,
Have you seen Star Cops ? (I’m pretty sure you have)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdHlHTi2cCM
I’m not saying is was *good* but it seemed
reasonably accurate (in my memory)
What did you find wrong about it ? for the hardcore space
nut, the worst part was only 6 episodes.
-Gar.
> Have you seen Star Cops ?
Never even heard of it before. Tried to watcht he link you posted. uuuhhhhnnnngggg. Boring.
Wasn’t there Some Guy in the 1960’s who worked with some Mouse Company to do exactly what you just wrote about? 🙂 I think he had something to do with sending the first rocket into space and putting some dudes on the moon and helping ignite a nation around a common goal.
What happened to people who think about the big picture like that? I guess they just get dragged back into the bucket with the rest of the crabs. 🙁
Bill Whittle’s Aurora?